Patent GB-683789-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in power driven clothes wringers
IPC: D06F45/18
Filed: 1950-12-12
Abstract: 683,789. Wringers. BRITISH THOMSONHOUSTON CO., Ltd. Dec. 12, 1950. [Dec. 28, 1949] No. 30344/50. Class 138 (ii). A power-driven clothes wringer has rolls 10, 11, journalled in a frame 2 pivotally mounted on a head 1 having drive means including reversing gearing and a shift yoke 26 for establishing neutral, forward and reverse positions of the gearing, a shaft 29 rotatable in the head 1, a shift yoke actuating plate 32 mounted for rotation relative to the shaft 29 and having means 27 eccentrically engaging the yoke to shift it between neutral and driving positions, a spring 46 biasing the plate 32 towards neutral position, a latch pin 34 axially slidably carried by the head, means biasing the latch pin releasably into engagement with indexing means on the actuating plate to retain it against the bias of the spring 46 in either of the yokeshifted positions, means co-operating between the plate 32 and the shaft 29 to provide a lost motion connection between them whereby the plate 32 rotates with the shaft 29 after a predetermined initial rotation of the shaft, means operated by the shaft to engage with the latch pin to cause it to release the plate 32 during the initial rotation, and means carried by the latch pin and engaging with the' wringer frame to release the latch pin upon pivotal movement of the frame relative to the head. The means co-operating between the plate 32 and the shaft 29 may comprise a finger 44 on the plate 32 adapted to co-operate with spaced projections 50, 51 on a cam plate 31 fixed to the shaft 29. The plate 32 may be mounted on a shouldered screw 33 threaded into the shaft 29, and carries an eccentric shift finger 27 which rides in a pocket in the yoke 26. Rotation of cam plate 32 thus moves the yoke 26 up or down to cause one or other of two clutch jaws 22a, 23a on pinions 22, 23 to engage with drive pins 25 on a drive shaft 24. The spring 46 is coiled round the shaft 29 and has crossed leg portions straddling the finger 44 and a fixed abutment 45. The latch pin 34 is biased toward the cam plates 31, 32 by a spring 37, and is received in a notch 49 between projections 47, 48 on the plate 32 when the mechanism is in neutral position. When the projections 46 or 47 are carried beyond latch pin 34 the pin rests on the adjacent edge of cam plate 32. On rotating a handle 30 secured to the shaft 29 the plate 31 rotates through about 25 degrees lost motion before projection 50 or 51 engages finger 44. Meanwhile pin 34 is cammed upwardly by surface 54 on cam plate 32 so that by the time rotation of plate 32 commences, a projection 52 or 53 will have raised pin 34 above projection 47. Continued rotation will bring the projections beyond pin 34 which is then driven downwardly by spring 37 against the surface of cam 32 to locate the cam in one of its driving positions. To return the gear to neutral, the handle is turned in the opposite direction so that projection 52 first cams the pin 34 out of the path of projection 147 and then spring 46 will drive the plates 31, 32 and yoke 26 to neutral position. Pivoted at 40 to the top of the latch pin 34 is a lifter having legs 41, 42 and a substantially circular head 43. The head 43 rides between lugs 15 on the upper cover 14 of the wringer. The wringer frame 2 is pivoted to the head 1. by means of bolts 5 and to stop the wringer in an emergency the operator may push or pull on the frame 2 sufficiently to rotate the frame about the pivot bolts. Thereupon one of the lugs 15 rotates the lifter about one of its legs, to cause the lifter to raise pin 34 and thus allow spring 46 to return the cam plate 32 and shift yoke 26 to neutral position. Springs 16 return the frame 2 to its centred position.